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RIAA Attacks Sites Participating in Its Own Campaign
An anonymous reader writes "The RIAA is once again at their old tricks. The band Nine Inch Nails has intentionally 'leaked' songs via USB keys hidden at restrooms during their current European tour. Sites hosting the songs are now being sent cease and desist orders. 'Ironically, with its numerous pirated downloads available, the whole album has not leaked yet. According to a source, the only leaks are the ones Reznor approved himself. And whether he realizes it or not, Reznor may be building a new option for presenting music that augments the existing CD/tour scenario.'"
Exactly. Just because they authorized the distribution of some promo copies of an upcoming release doesn't mean that the people in possession of those promos are authorized to distribute them to others. Yes, it is stupid of them to be killing the buzz around the album by sending these takedown notices, but I don't think they have a choice but to go after the people violating copyright.
When lawsuits are brought against copyright violators, the plaintiff is oftentimes the label - NOT the RIAA. The RIAA is acting on behalf of the label. The label signed off on the promotion.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
What do you think they'll make of this?
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Trent Reznor has put the full album up on the official website for promotional purposes.
http://yearzero.nin.com/
(no reg: http://yearzero.nin-thespiral.com/FLJoi4gjw2f/pla
This is the first RIAA-produced album I'm considering breaking my boycott for. First, because it's very good, and secondly, because even if they may get some profit from it, the message to them should be very clear.
been done already :)
5 1222
check here http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/08/21
Yeah, for a few weeks my inbox was peppered with email from friends along the lines of "there's this weird NIN thing, I think it's computer hacker stuff, you're a nerd right?"
Much of it is actually fairly brilliant, the Wikipedia article is worth a once-over if you haven't been following things. I'm especially impressed with the fact that they hid a picture in the spectrogram of one of the songs.
Which brings me back to this article.. NIN wasn't just leaking music tracks, they were distributing clues which were part of this whole ARG thing. As such, they were obivously counting on the tracks being further distributed, unless they really believed that the one person who picked up the USB stick in the bathroom would just happen to be a steganography buff or whatever. People were supposed to throw these tracks around and analyse the crap out of them.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
The article does a horrible job of explaining the campaign. Here are http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070402/music_nm/ninei nchnails_dc;_ylt=AgIXkKsEUNycFRi_5MtSiIeVEhkFtwo http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/20 07/02/22/year-zero-project-way-cooler-than-lost/si tes that do a better job. This "new thing" everyone is talking about has less to do with the fact that he's giving music away on USB keys and more to do with the series of sites that are linked together and help promote the album. The first site's address to be "discovered" by fans was given in highlighted letters on a tour t-shirt. From there, further "codes" were solved and those lead to other sites, all related to NIN and the album. The keys/songs are just bonus material for fans at the concerts.
The sites, with the USB keys, with the tour, with the album is what they are buzzing about, not just the USB keys.
Regardless of your opinion of NIN's artistic integrity, Trent Reznor is a self-produced artist. His label, Nothing Records, is in limbo right now over legal woes with his former manager and business partner, John Malm Jr. It is still legally operating, but the owners are going through rough times as Reznor recently won a law suit against Malm for a significant chunk of money. It is speculated that one will buy out the other's half at some point in the near future.
What I'd like to know is what authority does the RIAA have in these matters ? Can they legally "defend" an independent label ? Were they called upon to pursue litigation by either Reznor (unlikely) or Malm (very likely, but I never liked him to begin with) ? Could this be a sign that the RIAA's members release so much filth that they can't even keep track of what's theirs ? It's somewhat common for the RIAA to claim damages on things they don't even own, as many suits have been thrown out of court on such premises.
-Billco, Fnarg.com